Winners & Losers of the Week

The final budget deal hashed out is a complete and embarrassing loss for the once powerful CWA Union.
They lost on every issue and to add insult to injury they even lost a holiday! State Senator Sweeney rubbed their nose in it by getting Lincoln's birthday knocked off the holiday list.

Here are the final issues as written in the AP tonight:

-- Raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

-- Require someone to earn $7,500 per year to receive a taxpayer-funded pension.

-- Eliminate Lincoln's Birthday as a state worker holiday.

-- Allow the state to offer incentives to workers not to take taxpayer-paid health insurance.

"The taxpayers really won today, and I actually think we're being fair to everyone," said Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

Public worker unions had opposed the reforms, but the top officials from the state's largest teachers union participated in the closed-door meetings in which the agreement was hashed out.

Even the NJEA sold CWA down the river by sitting in on the final negotiations!

Why is this important? The myth of power has now been broken. Financial issues that were once thought to be " sacred cows" will now be reviewed and " rethought".

The CWA is a paper tiger. No one in Trenton is scared or intimidated anymore by them. This is a huge paradigm shift that will have ramifications for years.

Taking Lincoln's birthday is a very big symbolic " slap in the face" , a " now you know who is boss" type of action.

It might seem like a minor issue to someone on the outside but losing Lincolns birthday could not have happened a few years ago when this union had some " juice".

How do you spell loser? C -- W-- A